Monday, June 23, 2008

New Baby Girl

I am spending this week in the northern mountains. My son and daughter-in-law have a new baby girl, one week old yesterday. She has lots of very dark hair and dark eyes; she's very different from her big (19 months old--not very big) sister, who is quite fair and blonde with bright blue eyes.

She has a hard time staying awake long enough to eat before she falls asleep again--unless, of course, it is three o'clock in the morning.

I haven't seen them in a year because we live so far apart, all the way across the nation. But from now on, I am going to make sure I see them more often. A year is too long a time to miss in the life of a little girl.

Creating new lives is one of God's most marvelous miracles.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Cardboard Testimonies

I got to know and love God after about fifty years of slogging along through life without him. For a while, I thought it would be a good idea to show people what life is like without him; maybe they would see the difference.

But now I realize that was wrong; people see life without him everywhere, every day--they know. The thing to do is show people what life is like with him.

The Hillside Christian Church in Amarillo, Texas, does just that. Watch this YouTube video they did called "Cardboard Testimonies." It says a lot--but not much aloud--about what God has done in people's lives.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Wordless Wednesday: 1956 Photo



This is a picture of my brother, my mother and me, ready for church; it was taken about 1956.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Wordless Wednesday


http://www.iit.edu/~smart/pearkat/lesson1.htm

See yesterday's post!

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Painted Lady Butterflies

My grandchildren sent my mother, their great-grandmother, a marvelous gift for Mother’s Day (with the help of their mother). The two oldest boys, ages 5 and 7, giggled and told her a mysterious package would arrive soon and she must be careful about removing it from the box. She must not open the jar.

When the box arrived, we carefully took the jar out and set it on the table to read the booklet that came with it. The jar contained five Painted Lady butterfly babies. They were charcoal gray—very plain-looking and wormish, as caterpillars often are. The directions said we should set the jar somewhere out of heat and direct sunlight for about a week, while they crawled around and ate the nutritious brown stuff in the bottom. A net butterfly cage came along with them.

By about the tenth day, they had all climbed up and attached themselves upside down to the paper on the underside of the jar lid. They grew shorter than before, and they turned goldish-brown as they became chrysalides. At that point, we very carefully removed the lid, took out the round piece of paper, and pinned it to the side of the butterfly cage.

About five days later, we noticed one of the chrysalides was missing. Amazing! It had turned into a beautiful gold, brown, and white butterfly. Perching on the side of the cage, it was waiting for its wings to dry.

The instructions told us to then place a large flower, preferably a carnation, in the bottom of the cage and sprinkle it with sugar-water. I bought a carnation at the local florist’s for a dollar; we cut the stem short and put it in a small bowl to leave plenty of room for butterflying.

Within two days, four of the chrysalides had hatched (I suppose “hatched” is the right word) and the four new Painted Ladies were flitting about and landing on the carnation. My mother wheeled her chair to the back door and opened the cage to release them. Three of them fluttered away immediately, but one stayed in the open cage for a few minutes before leaving.

This was a wonderful experience for my mother; she loved watching the caterpillars become butterflies. Only God, the Chief Architect of butterfly birth, could plan such a process.

**You can order butterfly rearing kits at this linked Swallowtail Farms site. The picture comes from this nature site.